B L A C K I E Wilderness of North America Self-Released

B L A C K I E’s live set, framed by his cus-tom multi-kilowatt wall of sound, has quickly become the stuff of Houston legend. The monolithic rig is best seen as a projection of

B L A C K I E himself; a dangerous, hand-built pastiche of circuits, driven deep into the red, reeking of ozone and one cycle away from cascading electric disaster. It inspires some combination of awe and fear to stand there and watch the two spill out impossible energy—it’s no surprise that every show only ends, and always abruptly, when one of them can’t take any more.

Wilderness of North America, self-described as transatlantic grime, is no different. The album explodes open, casting you right into asynchronous, looping vocals and his characteristic glitchy sampled beats. Tracks hop between deeply industrial and atmospheric, painting the continent as an expanse of chain-link-fenced backyards shadowed by chemical plants, bleak and tortured by the establishment. Two years in the making, the lyrics chronicle moral desperation, suicide, the disintegration of society, helplessness and redemption—nothing pop-rap can touch with the same sincerity.

Wilderness is a towering, enormous sound, artist Michael LaCour’s own anger terrifyingly articulated. It’s an incredible album and easily one of the best of this year.

BalaclavasInferno Phonographic Arts (LP Version)

Balaclavas have played around with their sound a bit since their first release—the days of shouting into a car muffler are largely over—and have really hit their stride with

Inferno. They still have the dirty, spaced-out post-post-punk sound (I think I called it Big Black with reverb once), but it’s become heavily reinforced by an almost tribal drum-and-bass section that adds considerable, almost danceable punch behind a guitar jagged enough to give you tetanus. The band explains that a balaclava is an ominous looking full-body jumpsuit, ninja-esque, something similar to what a terrorist in a video game might wear; if their first album is sonic terror, then let this one be the sound of an elite international anti-terrorist task force– devastation practiced in short, controlled bursts. It’s less than half an hour, but “Own Me” and “Mecca” stand out as centerpieces.

It’s also worth noting that this album is exceptionally well-recorded—engineers never get enough credit, so hats off to Chris Ryan at Dead City Sound for an excellent mix. The vinyl LP has been given a full remastering and is the authoritative release.

Watch for their upcoming third LP, Roman Holiday, out in early 2009.

Nosaprise Grown Folks MusicSelf-Released

After rhyming at shows for years, Nosa has finally released his debut album.

Production is good for a self-released album, but it definitely doesn’t have the

flash and polish of a major studio album. That said, he slashes through several styles—the most prominent is a straight-forward underground sound, but one track with local singer Karina Nistal is almost a modern take on hip-house—proving his versatility as an MC. Dropping largely positive rhymes, Grown Folks Music is a nice breath of fresh air.

Studemont Project Warmth of the Midnight Sun

Self-ReleasedOne of the hardest working acts in the

local scene, Studemont Project not only of-fers up a solid album, but do something that very few hip-hop acts can—perform with

live instrumentation. Their style ranges farther than hip-hop, incorporating elements of electronica, blues, and more. Check them out live—they play reasonably often—because as good as the album is, they’re better live.

Nicolay and KayTIME:LINENicolay Music

Technically, the duo isn’t local—Dutch producer Nicolay currently resides in North Carolina, but Kay (of the Foundation) is a Houston-based MC, and several of the

guest MCs and singers are Houstonians as well, including the Luv Bugz and Mic of the Legendary K.O. Sonically, both Kay and Nicolay’s sensibilities lie in jazzy soul with smart lyrics, echoing the Native Tongues movement of the late 80’s and early 90’s, but with a modern, smoother update to the sound partially paralleling the neo-soul movement of the past decade. It’s an interesting collaboration born out of internet forums—something of a modus operandi for foreign-born Nicolay, who also has released two albums with Phonte of Little Brother as The Foreign Exchange.

Devin the Dude Landing GearRazor and Tie

Devin Copeland, aka Devin the Dude, has oft been described as “your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper,” though he has never become a commercial success. With

a laidback (read: weed and booze fueled) feel, Devin’s first release after leaving Houston’s Rap-a-lot Records continues in the trademark humorous and fun style for which he has become known. Landing Gear might not be his strongest effort ever across the board, but there are definitely a couple of gems on the album. While we can’t endorse his lifestyle, we can support one of Houston’s best kept secrets.

The Bug London ZooNinja Tune

Londoner Kevin Martin has been cutting edges in electronic music and electronic dub since the late 80s, with projects includ-ing GOD, Ice, and Techno Animal. Rather

than fade away like many other producers, Martin continues to be active and influential with his latest project, The Bug. Launched in 1997 with a tribute the film The Conversation, the project eventually became the feature outlet for Martin’s hard Jamaican-style dancehall production work. Now in 2008 he has delivered The Bug’s third full-length album, a production powerhouse that smoothly interlaces the hard bounce of his dancehall style, low bubbling dubstep, and erratic UK grime. The beats are enormous, the bass drops breathtaking, and there are tender touches just where they need to be. Roll Deep MC Flow Dan, reggae old-timer Ricky Ranking, dubstep pioneer voice Space Ape, and rising star Warrior Queen are among the vocal contributors.

Various ArtistsAfrican Scream ContestAnalog Africa

This new compilation of recordings from the 1970s in Benin and Togo present a broad and vibrant blend of traditional rhythms, Cuban and Brazilian drumming

styles, psychedelic flares, and a healthy funk that draws equally from Fela Kuti and James Brown. Benin and its neighbor Togo are couched between social and musical powerhouse Nigeria (home to Fela and his Africa 70, the fountainhead of afrobeat) and Ghana (the home of highlife), two sounds that are very influential on the local music. But Benin also houses a large population descended from the repatriated slaves of liberated

Brazil, who brought the musical styles and rhythms from their erstwhile home. And finally Benin is the place of origin of the Vodoun (or Voodoo) religion, where music holds a special trance-inducing power. Add in a healthy measure of recorded western soul, funk, and psychedelia, and the results are a unique, power-ful funk with incredible energy and rhythm. This compilation delivers not only the music, but interviews with the musicians themselves and a great deal of information about the music scene in Cotonou in the 70s. Apparently there was enough raw mate-rial to provide a second volume, to be released soon featuring in particular the Orchestre Poly-rythmo de Cotonou.

Gas Nah und FernKompakt

Is it cheating to nominate a reissue as best of the year? What about four reissues in a single package? Because Wolfgang Voight, proprietor of the Köln-based minimalist

techno label Kompakt, has finally decided to reissue the bulk of the back catalog of his solo project Gas in one finely packaged box set. The set goes back to 1996’s self-titled album, a slightly self-conscious work that very carefully balances the breathy, dreamy soundscapes that he later became well known for with low, thumping dance floor beats. The second album in the set, Zauberberg, originally released in 1997, brings ethereal strings and a more dissipated, almost airy feel to the music. The beats remain as distant footsteps in the mist, and the album plays almost as a single entrancing piece. The beat carries on into 1999’s Konigsforst, only to be lost somewhere in the depths of the subtle electronic rainforest that occupies the bulk of the album. The final piece of the puzzle is the masterwork Pop, which brings both serene confidence and a glitch-prickly texture, per-fectly coloring the gentle synthetic strings. Words like calm and relaxing don’t even apply, there’s an electricity here that grabs your attention while allowing the mind to wander quite freely. And all four full-length albums are handsomely packaged in a card paper box covered in soft, dark, blue-green photos of thick forest underbrush that excellently matches the cool, textured sounds found on the cds.

Mark Flaum, Dennis Lee and Ian Wells and contributed to this article.

Year in Review: Best Albums of 2008

Rap and folk, soul and post-punk—2008 brought albums for every taste, and with this round-up of our favorites, KTRU presents a musical smorgasbord with an emphasis on the local scene. In no particular order, here’s some of the best the year had to offer.

By Matthew Brownlie In many ways, today’s mashup culture kicked off in

earnest in 1983, when a couple of ad men spent a weekend putting a song together in a New York City apartment. “The Payoff Mix,” by Steve “Steinski” Stein and Doug “Double Dee” DiFranco, starts off as a fairly straight-forward remix of a fun but unremarkable hip-hop track. A couple of minutes in, though, things get surprising. A few seconds of “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya” by Culture Club are jarringly looped in. Then, out of nowhere, Little Richard starts a-wop-bop-a-loo-bopping. After some instructions on how to do the bunny hop, Humphrey Bogart shows

up: “You played it for her, you can play it for me. Play it!” and in drops “Rockit” by Herbie Hancock. After a brief flashback to the original track, the chorus of “Stop in the Name of Love” blasts through. All of this happens in just over a minute.

The rest of the song unfolds in the same fashion, whipping from one incongruous musical quote to the next with spoken word clips thrown in on top. It’s a fun dance track that sounds like it could have come out yesterday, but it’s 25 years old.

This track and the two that follow, 1984’s “Lesson Two (James Brown Mix)” and 1985’s “Lesson Three (History

of Hip Hop),” could be said to be the first new pop songs created entirely out of other people’s music. True, DJs had been cutting back and forth between tracks for years, and artists like John Oswald and Negativland had long been creating new work from bits and pieces of pre-existing music. But this was something new, an aesthetic that took in a wide range of pop culture, chopped it all up, and manically reassembled it as something you could bop your head to.

Stein and Difranco were unlikely musical hip-hop progenitors: white guys, comparatively old (33 and 27 respectively) and nonmusicians. “The Payoff Mix” was their entry for a Tommy Boy Records remix contest, and when they won they received $100, a Tommy Boy t-shirt, the opportunity to meet the judges (Afrika Bambaataa and Jellybean Benitez among them) and, most importantly, club distribution and airplay. And although “The Payoff Mix” was a club hit, it couldn’t be released commercially—at the time there was simply no mechanism by which to clear the multitude of samples.

Steinski and theOrigins of Mashup

What is the Rice Radio Folio?The Folio is first and foremost a programming and listening guide designed to help you keep up with what’s on air. For your pleasure, our DJs also generate a healthy serving of album reviews, playlists, band profiles, concert calendars, interviews, and news and information about KTRU and the Houston music scene.

The Folio was a more regular feature from the 1980s through the early 1990s, when it educated and entertained readers on a weekly basis. The station’s boost to 50,000 watts and resultant lack of a reliable on-campus signal until the late 1990s contributed to its (partial) abandonment. Now the folio lives again, in a longer, if less frequent form. If you are new to KTRU, the Folio is an excellent place to begin what will no doubt be a long and fruitful love affair. If you’re already hooked, the folio is just another way to get more of what you love.

Continued on page 2

KTRU 91.7 FM SPRING 2009

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The ThReSheR IS NoT ReSPoNSIble FoR The coNTeNT oF The RIce RadIo FolIo.

By Mark FlaumTom Carter and Christina Madonia met

as co-workers at Sound Exchange, back before it moved to its current location on Richmond Street. Tom was playing in the Mike Gunn, and Christina added guest vocals on a couple of that band’s explosive psychedelic rock albums. Around the same time, the two started playing music inspired by blues and psychedelic folk but with a definite interest in escaping any traditional form of song. They chose a name for their project—first the Mutual Appreciation Society, then Charalambides, a common Greek surname that has no translation. A friend invited the band to perform on KTRU, but instead they recorded a cassette of material for him to play on the air. That tape evolved into their first release, Our Bed is Green.

The Our Bed is Green cassette first ap-peared in 1992, just as compact discs were starting to replace the cassette and the LP as the music medium of choice. Some tracks feature fierce, noisy blasts of guitar, while others are small and acoustic, with hesitant, shy vocals from Christina (soon Christina Carter) struggling to lead the song forward. Some feature tape treat-ments and other experimental techniques. The lyrics are, I suspect, often improvised, bedroom musings and an expression of the frustration of using words at all. Tellingly, after only a couple of more releases, the Charalambides would abandon words en-tirely and turn to wordless vocals for nearly a decade. Perhaps the most moving song on the cassette is the fuzzy and sincere version of ‘I Bid you Goodnight,’ a tradi-tional folk tune from the Bahamas, most familiar from the work of Joseph Spence but also integrated into the Incredible String Band’s ‘A Very Cellular Song.’ Over the years this album has seen a number

of other editions: the band released a CD version with a reduced track list a few years ago; the Time Lag label released a deluxe 2LP version more than a decade after its original release; and finally the Kranky label produced a 2CD version (minus a couple of cover songs) that remains in print today. An early copy of the cassette made its way to Tom Lax of Siltbreeze records, who offered to release their music on his label and opened up another chapter in the history of the band.

Siltbreeze was a vital label in the American underground through the 90s. They introduced the Dead C and other New Zealand lo-fi bands to the country, as well as even stranger acts such as the Shadow Ring. Domestically, they cham-pioned the Strapping Fieldhands, Harry Pussy, and of course the Charalambides. Siltbreeze released two LPs of Charalam-bides material—the fuzzy, blues-touched Union in a gorgeous hand-made sleeve and the altogether more haunting Market Square. The duo became a trio at this time, inviting their friend Jason Bill to join the band. The three of them were also very active in Houston’s budding improvisa-tion scene, and several other musicians from that scene appear as guests on the series of compact discs they continued to release on their own Wholly Other label. Many of those recordings have gotten very hard to find over the intervening years, though the last CD they recorded for Siltbreeze, entitled Houston, still turns up on occasion.

Houston was released in 1998, a couple of years after Jason Bill moved on, and was the first Charalambides release from their new home in Austin. The songs are calm, distortion is nearly absent, and many of the tracks use a gentle balance between acoustic and electric guitars. Christina’s

voice is powerful but still ethereal, now not afraid of ululations and taking comfort-able lead of a song. She also plays piano on one of the tracks, with confidence and lots of sustain. Tom adds percussion and saxophone to his portfolio, as well as con-tinuing to introduce field recordings and tape effects. The haunting drift that first appeared on Market Square still makes an appearance, though overall this album is among their most optimistic releases.

The move to Austin somewhat coin-cided with an increasing number of solo recordings for Tom and Christina. Tom’s solo work tended to be long-form explora-tions of the lap steel guitar and roaming flares of electric guitar. Christina’s solos were more subdued affairs, sparse and delicate, her explorations more introverted and private. She also devoted time to her duo with Heather Leigh Murray, called Scorces. In that duo the two women matched their voices and farfisa organ drones, eventually introducing the pedal steel guitar with guidance from Houston pedal steel legend Susan Alcorn. Around 2002 Heather was invited to join the Charalambides, debuting on an untitled CD-R split with the Scorces that was later reissued by the Kranky label (minus the Scorces track) as Unknown Spin.

Unknown Spin is the title of the first song on the album, which opens with a delicate pulse that is slowly, gently absorbed into a glacial flow of voice and steel guitar. The album continues through four long tracks of spacious, slow-moving, and gently haunting music. The addition of a second voice allows the vocal portion to maintain a presence even as the guitar layers build up deep beneath the voices, and Heather’s pedal steel adds a warm gliding tone to the whole affair.

The trio with Heather continued for

around 3 years, during which time the Charalambides residency in Austin ended and the band divided, with Christina and Heather moving to Philadelphia and Tom to San Francisco. They had several more CD-R releases in that era, as well as the monumental Joy Shapes, which grew from the sound of “Unknown Spin ”but reintroduced words to the songs in the form of Christina’s poetry, delivered with a spacious grace well in tune with the songs they were making at the time. The Scorces were also very active at the time, including a celebrated 2003 collaborative perfor-mance with the fiery free jazz sax/drums duo of Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano, a union eventually referred to as Babes on the Loose. Heather departed for Scotland to help found the Volcanic Tongues record store and label, and Charalambides was once again reduced to a duo.

While Tom and Christina are now separated, they continue to perform and record together regularly. CD-R releases of new and archival recordings continue, and Kranky has released two Charalambides albums since Heather’s departure: A Vin-tage Burden and Likeness. Both feature a sound similar to Joy Shapes but necessarily sparser with the absence of the pedal steel. Lyrics take an even larger role than before, with the latter album drawing lyrics from traditional or well-known songs, though the music remains freeform. Both mem-bers remain active as solo performers and collaborators: Christina performs in a duo called The Bastard Wing and Tom works in the Friday Group, Zaika, Spiderwebs and more. The two of them have generated a substantial catalog and mapped out a unique corner of the musical world.

Artist Profile: Charalambides

*All items subject to change— Stay up-to-date at ktru.org with maps,

times and lineups.

Friday, January 23, 5 p.m.Deadline: Fall DJ Applications

Friday, February 6, 2009, 5 p.m.Deadline: Battle of the Bands Demos and Applications

Friday, February 20, 2009, 7 p.m.KTRU Battle of the Bands

@ Lovett Undergrounds / Lyles, Rice University

Saturday, April 11, 2009, Noon to DarkKTRU Outdoor Show (Date is Tentative)

Some Field @ Rice University

HiT THe GROUND RUNNiNG:SPRiNG 2009 RecOmmeNDeD SHOwSHouston’s scene runs the gamut from experimental to bubblegum pop, death metal to gamelan, so mark your calendars and check out KTRU’s upcoming shows page, and other sites that note upcoming shows in the area. Don’t forget to ask around or make a call to see if the show is sold out. Also, stay tuned to 91.7, and you just might pick up a few free tickets.

PicK yOUR BATTLeS:

Saturday, January 24: Leave Your Genre at the Door 2, featuring Sad Go-rilla, Heptic Skeptic, Satin Hooks, Brains for Dinner, Perseph-1, Fat Tony, Nosaprise & News on the March @ Fitzgerald’s

Monday, January 25: Wheatfield @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck

Friday, January 30: Waverly Hills and Lift The Veil @ Javajazz Coffee House

Saturday, January 31: MV & EE, The Linus Pauling Quartet & Wols @ Rudyard’s

Monday, February 2: Broken Social Scene/Lymbyc Systym @ Numbers

Saturday, February 7: The Bad Plus @ Cullen Theater

Tuesday, February 10: Loney, Dear @ Rudyard’s

Thursday, February 12: Annuals @ Walter’s on Washington

Saturday, February 14: Heartless Bastards @ The Continental Club

Thursday, February 17: Brentano String Quartet / Poetry and Music @ The Menil Collection

Sunday, March 3: Juan De Marcos & The Afro-Cuban All Stars @ Warehouse Live

Sunday, March 28: Willie Colon and Soulsa Caliente @ Miller Outdoor Theatre

Make sure you check out calendars online for a full list of upcoming shows!

http://www.spacecityrock.com/http://www.namelesssound.org/http://www.superunison.com/http://bang.rice.edu/shows.shtml

By Matthew BrownlieNonetheless, being heard was enough

of a thrill that Steinski and Double Dee assembled the aforementioned Lessons Two and Three. Again, neither would be released commercially, but all three would exist as bootlegs in one form or another. Lesson Three, in fact, has never gone out of print despite never seeing an “official” release (until recently). In hip-hop, lumi-naries like De La Soul and DJ Shadow have each recorded direct homages to these tracks, and artists such as Coldcut and Kid Koala owe much to Steinski and Double Dee’s spirit of funky mischief.

Earlier this year, Illegal Art released What Does It All Mean? a two-CD ret-rospective of Steinski’s work (including The Lessons), making them available to everyone for the first time. Illegal Art is also home to Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, whose albums Night Ripper and Feed the Animals have taken the art of the mashup remix to hyperactive, schizoid, joyous new heights. It’s almost impossible to imagine those two albums existing without The Lessons. Indeed, “The Payoff Mix” was arguably the Night Ripper of its time, cannily connecting disparate pop-musical ideas and signifiers from various genres and time periods with a sense of frantic glee. The results of both are fascinating and, more importantly, seriously entertaining.

The rest of the retrospective shows Steinski refining his aesthetic, honing his skills and updating his gear (The Les-sons were constructed using tape and

razorblades). The first disc is made up of one-offs: “Jazz” and “Voice Mail (Sugar Hill Suite)” are further collaborations with Double Dee. The latter is a sampledelic jaw-dropper, spinning through 23 of the legendary hip-hop label’s hypest moments in about five minutes. “I’m Wild About That Thing” is built on hilarious and raunchy clips of what sound like sex-ed and porno records.

It’s not all fun and games. “The Motor-cade Sped On” is an intentionally disturb-ing collection of spoken material connected to the assassination of JFK over a loping beat. “Number Three on Flight Eleven” is a beat-less and harrowing meditation on 9/11. And “It’s Up To You (Television Mix)” is a party-for-your-right-to-fight anthem in opposition of the first Gulf War and the first President Bush. It sounded relevant in pre-election 2008, too.

Disc two is another previously hard-to-come-by masterpiece: “Nothing To Fear: A Rough Mix” is an hour-long set Steinski created for Coldcut’s Solid Steel radio show. Densely packed with dope beats and punchlines, everything shows up: from The Music Man to Alec Baldwin’s famous Glengarry Glen Ross monologue to Nelly’s “Country Grammar” (reimagined here as a stoner anthem). It would be exhausting if it weren’t so fun.

“What Does It All Mean?” is a revela-tory release for those unfamiliar with Steinski’s music. For remix and mashup fans, it doesn’t answer its titular question (how could it?), but it does tell us a lot about where it all started.

Steinski and the Origins of Mashup Continued from page 1

top 35 FoR the Week oF 01.12.2009ARTIST ALBUM LABELVarious Artists Radio Myanmar (Burma) Sublime FrequenciesTobacco Fucked Up Friends AnticonFight Bite Emerald Eyes Self-ReleasedVarious Bollywood Steel Guitar Sublime FrequenciesGang Gang Dance Saint Dymphna The Social RegistryMenahan Street Band Make The Road By Walking DunhamHearts Of Animals Cave Lights Artstorm RecordsThe Lines Flood Bank Acute RecordsO9 Church Of The Ghetto P.C. AsphodelJ-Live Then What Happened? Barely Breaking Even (BBE)DJ Baba James The House Of Good Juju FunketablaDJ Sun Para Alternate TakePumice Quo Soft AbuseVarious Artists Calypsoul 70: Carribean Soul & Calypso Crossover 1969 – 1979 StrutLucky Dragons Dream Island Laughing Language MarriageMARS The Complete Studio Recordings: NYC 1977 – 1978 No More RecordsFemi Kuti Day By Day Mercer StreetAntony and the Johnsons Another World Secretly CanadianThomas Ayresol Hell Level Self-ReleasedGolden Cities Golden Cities Esotype RecordsRichard Pinhas & Merzbow Keio Line CuneiformVarious Artists Poetry On Record Shout FactoryKevin Ayers What More Can I Say… ReelLukas Ligeti Afrikan Machinery TzadikM. Fulton, Tim Clark & Tom Lopez 2 Minute Film Noir ZBS AudioGroup Doueh Guitar Music From The Western Sahara Sublime FrequenciesSprawl America Is Dying Of Wetnurse Self-ReleasedLee ‘Scratch’ Perry Repentance NarnackVarious Artists Doubledown MerckDuchess Says Anthologie Des 3 Perchoirs Alien8Harvester Hemat SilenceFunckarma Vell Vagranz N5mdRosalie Sorrels Strangers In Another Country Red HouseAelters Misitch Mjeuga Djisc SonigSugar Minott Dance Hall Showcase Vol II Wackie’s

ktRU FALL hits 2008ARTIST ALBUM LABELAlva Noto Unitxt Raster-NotonBoom Pam Puerto Rican Nights EssayDenice Franke Gulf Coast Blue CertainEddie the Rat Eddie the Rat EdgetoneEden & John’s East River String Band Some Cold Rainy Day East RiverEvangelista Hello, Voyager ConstellationFree Radicals Funk From the First 3 Self-ReleasedGang Gang Dance Saint Dymphna The Social RegistryGroup Doueh Guitar Music From the Western Sahara Sublime FrequenciesHearts of Animals Cave Lights ArtstormJ-Live Then What Happened? Barely Breaking EvenLee ‘Scratch’ Perry Repentance NarnackLot 49 Music for “I, Robot” Self-ReleasedLovely Little Girls Glamorous Piles & Puffy Saddlebags ApopLucky Dragons Dream Island Laughing Language MarriageMegaphone Megaphone Natural HighMenahan Street Band Make the Road by Walking DunhamO9 Church of the Ghetto P.C. AsphodelSprawl America is Dying of Wetnurse Self-ReleasedTwo Star Symphony Love & Other Demons Self-ReleasedVarious Artists Lagos Chop Up Honest JonVarious Artists Radio Myanmar (Burma) Sublime FrequenciesVarious Artists Technicolor Yawn: KVRX Local Live Vol. 12 KVRXVibracathedral Orchestra Wisdom Thunderbolt VHFYuganaut This Musicship Esp-Disk

Houston rapper B L A C K I E played a surprise show at Rice on September 9th.Rap at the RMC

DavID Rosales

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RIce RadIo FolIo SPRING 2009 RIce RadIo FolIo SPRING 2009

FRoM The MUSIc dePaRTMeNT

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Specialty Shows Specialty shows make up around 30 percent of our programming hours, most

during the evening hours between 5 p.m. and 1 a.m. These shows endeavor to play unexposed music from genres other than rock. Some of our specialty shows, such as Chickenskin and Jazz, have been going strong for over 20 years; others, like Africana, are brand new. KTRU strives to play the greatest variety of music with the least trash of any station in the Houston vicinity, and specialty shows help us toward this goal.

AfricanaThe African/African Diaspora show celebratesexplores the music of Africans and com-

munities of African descent wherever one finds them. This last is what is sometimes referred to as “the African diaspora.” Africa is home to some of the world’s greatest musical traditions. Our goal on the Africana show is to expose introduce the Rice communitylisteners to the rich diversity of some of the world’s greatest, and still evolving musical traditions. We to the rich diversity of these still evolving musical cultures. Hosts Joe and Chris have spent years collecting African music, and we play everything from traditional and folkloric music to the classic recordings of the sixties and seventies toand today’s dance hits. Not only do we present the music of 54 African countries, but we will also explore African music in the Americas, Europe and the Indian Ocean: everything from reggae, to jazz, to Columbian cumbias, and Cape Verdean mornas, and more. Tune in to KTRU every Saturday from 12:00 – 3:00 pm and join Joe and Chris us on an exciting journey into the music of the Africa and its Diaspora.

AmericanaEvery Monday night from 9 – 10 p.m., the Americana show explores the roots and history

of American music (and sometimes, American history through music). For example, on MLK Day, we played speech excerpts from MLK, RFK’s famous speech on the assassination, plus songs by Otis Spann, Nina Simone, the Staple Singers and others who recorded civil rights and MLK related material. On the birthday of the Houston blues legend Big Mama Thornton (now deceased), we played a selection of her music, and on Election Day we’ll play appropriately themed songs (Blue Mountain’s “Jimmy Carter,” the Austin Lounge Lizards’ “Ballad of Ronald Reagan”). We try to cover as many American genres as possible—jazz, blues, bluegrass, gospel, cajun, zydeco, rockabilly, country, western swing, etc. Other themes have included Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Sarg Records (an obscure but important indie label from central Texas), the best of Bob Wills, the accordion, Motown, songs about food, Sam Cooke (on his birthday) and Townes Van Zandt (on the anniversary of his death).

BluesJoin us on Wednesday nights for an exploration and insightful look at the world of blues.

Taking the genre beyond 12 bars and 3 chords, this two hour program brings the stark beauty of Billie Holiday, the pleading of James Brown, the delta sound of Robert Johnson, and the relentless sounds of Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush, and many others to one meeting place here on KTRU. It’s Blues in Hi-Fi; Wednesdays 7 – 9 p.m. on KTRU Houston!

ChickenskinChickenskin Music airs Thursday Evenings on KTRU from 8 – 10 p.m. The show gets

its name from an old blues expression referring to music that gives you ‘chickenskin’, or

goose bumps. At the beginning it was collage of bluegrass, folk, rockabilly, classical and jazz. The idea comes from a thought that all music from A to Z is related, and can be played together. It’s just a matter of how you get from A to Z. Live guests have always been a part of the show. Over the years we’ve hosted Lyle Lovett, Eric Taylor, Jason Eklund, The Neville Brothers, James McMurtry, Preston Reed, Sue Foley, Tish Hinijosa, Ani di Franco… and the list goes on.

ElectronicFirst there was the theremin, humming like a flying saucer to the wave of a hand. Then

along came giant modular synths and Australian computer music. As the twentieth century trickled onward, electronic music developed from an academic experiment to the dominant force on many dance floors. It has rewritten pop music, re-arranged the classical canon and played a key part in the development of hip hop. But today, electronic music has emerged into an abundance of music in a genre all own. Undanceable IDM, blast-happy breakcore, synth-buzzing electro, glitch, lap-pop and more. You can sample the spectrum every Friday evening from 7 – 9 p.m. on the Electronic show. As a special treat, on several occasions, the electronic show has presented electronic works from students in the Shepherd School of Music here at Rice.

Funk & SoulThe Funk show airs every Thursday evening, from 7 – 8 p.m. What began as monstrous

drum lines, super rhythmic electric guitar rifts, and an extra tight brass section has since evolved into one (wo)man bands intent on conquering the same soulful journey foreshad-owed by their imaginative ancestors decades ago. Henceforth, each week, the Funk show sets out to pay proper homage to the commendable funk purveyors, while acknowledging the soul scholars of today and introducing the mission controllers of tomorrow. No corner of the world or era of time is left uncovered. The declaration remains: “One Nation Under A Groove.”

Genetic MemoryGenetic Memory is a series of three-hour experiments within the sonic void. It is a continu-

ously redefining aural enigma, wrapped around a divergent collection of reference points, from percussive implosions to explosive decompressions, from trepanned sound poetry to doomed Grimmrobe sludge, from the meticulous and improvised to the orchestrated and chaotic, from old school industrial to new school drone, from free-jazz freakouts to freaky prog noodlings, from primitive electrons to digital dust devils, from Dadaist spasms to Ac-

tionist Grand Guignols and a myriad of tangents in between. A rotating crew of hosts and hostesses gives each show a constantly shifting center of gravity, with each DJ formulating his or her own definition of “music minus one chromosome.” On Monday nights, from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m., follow the unraveling strands of Genetic Memory.

Hip HopThe Vinyl Frontier airs every Tuesday night from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m. The show primarily

covers the latest releases from the underground hip-hop world with the occasional classic thrown in. Multiple styles are covered—from abstract ruminations backed by laptop glitch to gritty street tracks from upcoming MCs and even a club banger thrown in for good measure.

Select invited local DJs will occasionally appear on the show to illustrate their turntab-lism skills. Short interviews are also sometimes conducted with local and national hip-hop acts, and the roots of hip-hop and rap are explored by delving into the funk, soul, and jazz breaks that started it all.

Jazz/Improvised MusicThe KTRU Jazz and Improvised Music Program presents the living legends, unsung

heroes, rising stars and timeless pioneers in the world of creative improvisation, from the innovations of classic American jazz to the rigorous explorations of today’s European and Japanese free improvisers. From New York’s downtown sounds to regional styles and beyond. The Jazz and Improvised Music Program presents the vast spectrum of the music of the moment which you can hear broadcasting every Sunday from noon until 9 p.m.

KidsDo you remember Saturday morning cartoons? Do you remember the joyous anticipa-

tion that you felt on Friday night, knowing that Heaven was only a few hours away? Well, you can feel that joy, again! Every Saturday, the KTRU Kids’ Show digs up the songs that made your childhood. Old favorites and forgotten memories are intermixed with new clas-sics and rarities that you may have never heard before – and they are all family friendly and youth oriented! Hear cartoon theme songs, stories, children’s artists, child artists, and more! Hosted by the lovable DJ crew of Jane, Jenny and Tom, it’s sure to be the most fun you’ve had on a Saturday in a long time! (Don’t forget to let your kids listen, too!). Saturdays, noon – 1 p.m., only on KTRU!

LocalThe Local Show brings Houston musicians to the forefront, with occasional forays into the

rest of the Lone Star State. From Lightnin’ Hopkins to Jana Hunter, from The Red Krayola to The Fatal Flying Guilloteens, and from ZZ Top to Drop Trio, the show presents over five decades of Bayou City punk, jazz, blues, psych, noise, and everything in between. Tune in from 8 –10 p.m. every Tuesday to delve deep into the scene. Bi-weekly feature shows broadcast live sets and interviews with Houston heavyweights and newcomers alike, direct from our studio. Listen and discover the incredible bands you share this city with.

MetalFrom The Depths, KTRU’s metal show, features 3 hours of underground metal, without

a trace of commercial pseudo nu-metal. Death metal, black metal, thrash metal, raw, ugly, and heavy, with an impressive amount of vinyl: 7 inches, 12 inches, etc. Real metal from real metal-heads. From the old school to the newest underground releases. Sundays from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m.

MK UltraNeed a fix of the latest in underground electronic dance music? Not to worry - MK Ultra

has you covered, and we’re one of the very few Houston radio shows that does. Every Friday night from 9 p.m. – 12 a.m., we showcase three hours of live in-station DJ-mixes from the cream of the crop of local acts (and every now and then some international acts). We hit all the sub-genres, whether it’s house, drum n bass, progressive, breaks, etc. You can check us out on the web, at www.mkultra.us for recordings, details on sending promos, and how to submit DJ demos.

Mutant Hardcore Flower HourOnce upon a time, when today’s college freshmen were little more than a staring complex

and a bad perm, alternative, indie rock, garage, emo, grunge, and hardcore all had the same name: punk. Every Thursday night from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m., the Mutant Hardcore Flower Hour explores the genre that gave birth to all the lame bands that annoy your parents, your room-mates, and your friends, proving that nothing is more cathartic than giving everyone the finger at the same time, including yourself. Like Steven Van Zandt, we play the Ramones, everyone who influenced the Ramones, and everyone the Ramones influenced. If it’s fast and loud, if it’s angry, if it rocks, we’ve got it—but it’s more complicated than that. D. Boon of the Minutemen put it simply: Punk is whatever we make it to be.

NavrangThe Navrang (“Nine Colors”) Show covers the music of the Indian subcontinent, naturally

with a focus on music from films, but also capturing the diversity of the region with Indian classical, folk, Indipop, Asian underground and “Western fusion” music out of the region in a “spicy musical curry.” Check it out Saturday mornings, 10 a.m. to noon.

KTRU NewsKTRU News focuses on local (and especially Rice Community) leading thinkers, pro-

fessors, news makers, community organizations, nonprofits, arts organizations, politicians and the like, in a talk format, trying to capture what others might miss. If you have story ideas or want recordings of past shows, check our page at www.ktru.org. Tune in Fridays from 5 – 6 p.m.

Post PunkThe Modern Dance, KTRU’s post-punk show, airs every Tuesday night from 7 – 8

p.m.. Focusing on underground music of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, we play all genres of post-punk, from the mutant disco of Cristina to the avant garage of Pere Ubu. Despite their differences, almost every artist that we play exhibits a willingness to play with—and rebel against—pop music clichés. Take the rebellion and brashness of punk rock and add an experimental aesthetic edge and you have post-punk.

In addition to playing mixed sets and taking requests from our listeners, we often build the post-punk show around a theme. This year, for example, we have devoted entire shows to the Rough Trade label, to inaccessible music, and to synth pop. Tune into the post-punk show and you’ll get “The Modern Dance.”

Rice Radio ReggaeWednesdays from 5 – 7 p.m., KTRU’s Rice Radio Reggae takes listeners on a tour of some

of the many facets of Reggae music. While having its origins in Jamaica, Reggae now comes from countries across the globe, and each week Rice Radio Reggae attempts to present an overview of the genre. You’ll hear the Roots Reggae Bob Marley made famous, instrumental Dub, Dancehall, and more. It’s eclectic (just like KTRU!) and, who knows? You could just hear a side of Reggae you never knew existed!

Revelry ReportThe Revelry Report airs Friday nights from 6 – 7 p.m. and focuses primarily on local

events in and around Texas. In the past, the Revelry Report focused on just about every-thing, including Austin City Limits, national art openings (occurring locally), SXSW (South by Southwest, for newcomers), College Music Journal and a number of major benefits for various charities in and around town.

In its current incarnation, the show also places a strong emphasis on live studio per-formances by local and touring musicians, interviews with artists and musicians, and an overall coverage of events in Houston. By doing so, the Revelry Report has narrowed its focus, aiming to introduce our audience to alternative outlets for nightlife while exposing the many wonderful events in Houston that might otherwise go under the radar.

Spoken WordThe Spoken Word show offers performances from musicians, writers and poets, and

politicians and random diatribes. Saturdays 7 – 8 p.m.

SkaTune in every Sunday evening from 9 – 10 p.m., as we explore the origins and reincar-

nations of ska. Ska was the direct predecessor of Reggae, and is characterized by upbeat emphases, high quality horn sections, and influences from other traditions, including jazz, soul, punk and more. It sounds like reggae, but often with a quicker tempo, and built to be danced to. From the rude sounds of the 1960s Jamaican originators, to the two-tone UK anti-racist ska of the 70s and 80s, through the third wave ska of the 1990s from America and across the globe, we seek out the best, the obscure, and the unusual from around the world, as we give you an international take on the scene. Rude!

ScordaturaThe Scordatura Show explores modern and contemporary classical music: i.e. ex-

perimental, electronic, or otherwise unusual music voiced for more or less traditionally orchestral instruments, generally since 1900. Representative artists would include Glass, Reich, Cage, Stockhausen, Pierre Schaeffer, and the like, though we try to emphasize lesser known material, as our show bleeds across into the glitchiness of the Electronic Show, the experimentation of the Jazz Show, and the noisiness of Genetic Memory. We also regularly feature material composed or performed by members of Rice’s Shepherd School of Music, including live performances.

Treasures of the SixtiesIf you enjoy the music of the Sixties, but are sick and tired of the same old, played-out

rotation of classic rock radio, you’re not alone. Every Wednesday night from 9 – 11 p.m., the Treasures of the Sixties Show revisits the decade of boundless energy with an ear for what sounds fresh. You’ll hear cult artists such as Spirit and Love who deserve more, well, love. We like to play Texas legends like the 13th Floor Elevators, Sir Douglas Quintet, and Mayo Thompson. You’ll even hear album cuts from the likes of the Kinks and Otis Redding, artists with much deeper catalogues than commercial radio would have you believe. And with the armies of pop culture archeologists out there who make new discoveries every week, we’ll prove the saying, “If you haven’t heard it before, it’s good as new.” Fight the tyranny of Oldies radio! Catch the Sixties show on Wednesdays.

WorldFrom ancient Asian traditions to highly innovative Brazilian jazz, the KTRU World Music

Show covers the globe. Natural indigenous music of the rainforest gets equal play with ex-citing Indian Bhangra and African pop. From the most talented musicians the world has to offer to the most joyous and liveliest, listeners can hear it all on Monday nights from 7 – 9 p.m. A rotating volunteer staff with experience in international music and cultural education curates diverse set lists each week. We present acclaimed musicians like Talip Ozkan, Ali Farka Toure, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Mongo Santamaria, as well as many underrepre-sented and independent musicians around the world. Listeners will find out about world music events in Houston and the surrounding region. Occasionally the World Music Show may highlight regional events that feature international music, as well as Native American powwows and regional traditions with international origins.

Please note that once our newest crop of DJs us on air, all spaces marked “Robo” and “WRN” will be filled with live bodies.

the General shift What does a general shift, which makes up around 70 percent of our sched-ule, sound like? The answer is as varied as the DJs that spin tracks, but there are certain commonalities. our “playlist” consists of around 100 albums. General shift shows include 4 playlist tracks per hour, plus one each shift. The hope is for DJs to try out new and challenging music, while leaving them by and large free to select their own tracks. You also will hear at least 2 tracks from underrepresented genres each hour, including blues, jazz, world music from afghanistan to Zimbabwe, improvised and experimental music, and even pure noise. It’s not uncommon to hear a modern classical track, followed by indie pop, chased with drumming out of Cameroon, followed by hip hop. It’s eclectic; it’s challenging; it’s KTRU.

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Artist: Various ArtistsTitle: Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work (1888-2006)Label: Shout FactoryBy Rose cahalan

This ambitious collection—128 poems read by their authors over the range of 118 years—is a near-comprehensive oral history, both of American literary movements and the evolution of the poetry reading as performative art. From Romanticism to Modernism to the Beats to 21st century political protest, it’s all here in a hefty four-disc box set. Essential listening for anyone with an interest

in poetry, this release also holds surprises for those who’ve never given the genre a chance. Think Yeats and Browning were stuffy old men? The sheer musicality of Yeats’ “The Lake of Inisfree,” more sung than spoken, may shock you. And if Sylvia Plath has always seemed miserable and moping, prepare to be burned by her fiery delivery of “Daddy.” These and 96 other poets—whether famous or obscure, long dead or Generation X, come alive in their own voices in Poetry on Record. The first disc juxtaposes Walt Whitman reading from “America” with Gertrude Stein’s wonderfully bizarre verbal cubism in “A Completed Portrait of Picasso” and Langston Hughes’ mournful crooning in “The Weary Blues.” Part of the delight of these recordings comes simply from the qualities of the readers’ voices: Ezra Pound croaks and rasps like a vampire with emphysema, while Elizabeth Bishop just sounds like a nervous schoolgirl. There’s something intimate and thrilling about hearing these historical giants actually speak for themselves rather than from the pages of a poetry anthology. Shouting and quavering, bee-bopping and stuttering, they suddenly become real people—and this makes their words all the more powerful, as on disc two when, in the exhilarating epic “America,” Allen Ginsberg’s rhythmic reading grows more intense as he feeds off the cheers and hoots of his audience (some of whom may have wept at the end). Discs three and four are the most overtly musical, with blues poems from Amiri Baraka and “Logan Heights and the World,” Juan Felipe Herrera’s account of a rough immigrant childhood—a dark poem made brighter by lively acoustic guitar. Overall, my only complaint is that some of the choices are uneven. While I commend the inclusion of poets from a wide range of cultural backgrounds (Latin America, Asia, and Native America to name a few), the repetition of some writers and not others is odd. Why choose three poems by Amiri Baraka and only one by Adrienne Rich, two by Adrian Louis and none by Louise Gluck? In a collec-tion that attempts such grand inclusiveness, the decision to highlight a few poets more than others feels erratic and maybe a bit biased toward personal favorites. The compilation tracks not only literary changes but also technological ones. The solemnity of Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “The Change of the Light Brigade,” recorded in 1888 by Thomas Edison on wax, seems a far cry from Anne Waldman’s postmodern “Uh Oh Plutonium,” a synthesizer-enhanced response to the nuclear age—yet each is revolutionary in its way. The thorough booklet included in the set does an excellent job of explaining the cultural context of each work, and even includes portraits and short biographies for most of the writers. From Dorothy Parker’s twenty-second zinger “Resume” to Jack Kerouac’s voice as a jazz instru-ment in “American Haikus,” Poetry on Record is endlessly dynamic and widely varied—this isn’t your junior high school English class.

Artist: Richard Pinhas and merzbowTitle: Keio LineLabel: cuneiformBy Alyssa ibarra

This September brought the release of the double-CD album Keio Line, a collaborative project between Richard Pinhas of Helden fame and the renowned Japanese noise artist Merzbow. More than an effort to simply push two prolific electronic artists head to head to marvel at what such a collision may bring, the album shows the

beauty of true collaboration as Pinhas and Merzbow play off each other with great ease, the guitar and looping of Pinhas weaving seamlessly through the analog synths and noise brought on by Merzbow. Heavily layered and sonically expansive, this album is very spatial. Sit down in an empty room on a cold, concrete floor while closing your eyes and you’ll find yourself completely surrounded from all angles and losing your balance without ever moving an inch. You’ll slowly regain control through much of the repetitious looping only to be taunted with the indiscernible whereabouts of fading and reemerging pulses, compelled to forget trying to determine what is coming from where. The album’s first track, “Tokyo Electric Guerilla,” has a gradual build as it starts with noise that feels almost cleansing, purifying the listener to enter a state of true engagement. I took the track to be the invitation of sorts—perhaps even a warning—to embrace myself for the outright dizzying loops and pounding industrial synths found throughout the second track of the first CD. The track, by far my favorite of both CDs, ends with static and utter exhaustion. Pinhas and Merzbow don’t aim to intimidate, though, for tracks like “Shibuya AKS” and “Chaos Line” (a play on the title of the album, perhaps?) offer a more soothing touch. Here, the collabora-tion is more apparent as synths flow with rhythmic guitar loops that build intricately upon one another. The electronics in the album are, in essence, more exploratory than explosive. As if the woven texture of their combined sounds weren’t enough, Pinhas and Merzbow’s unity throughout Keio Line is apparent even in song titles: Track 2 from the first CD mixes Japanese with French in “Ikebukuro: Tout le Monde Descend!” (Ikebukuro is an entertainment district in Tokyo) while Track 1 from the second CD, called “Merzdon/Heldow Kills Animals Killers,” not only displays a switch in the very letters of their names but merges both artists into one singular being out to kill the animal killers… which brings me to my only concern with the album: when you first open the CD case, you are met with a photo of Masami Akita him-self working away on a laptop that displays a rather conspicuous sticker that reads, “Meat is Murder.” Below that you find another sticker opposing fur. I would have thought nothing of it, but with the song title and an empathic call written in the insert to “Stop Consumption! Stop killing animals! Ni Dieu ni Maitre!” I’m left wondering how this fits into the concept behind Keio Line. Did I miss something within the dense looping? I still don’t quite get it, but I do know that never did the image of a cow pop into my head when listening to this album. So if that were the objective, then by far Pinhas and Merzbow have hit this one out of the park.

Artist: Shawn Lee and clutchy HopkinsTitle: Clutch of the TigerLabel: UbiquityBy Jae mills

Clutch of the Tiger brings us an unlikely pairing, to say the least. Both Shawn Lee and Clutchy Hopkins are among the most active producer/ musicians on the funk/ jazz-fusion scene today. So it’s rather rare to see the two find time to collaborate outside of the worlds they both have managed to create for themselves. Take

Shawn Lee for instance: sixteen albums released in the past fourteen years (not counting various motion picture and video game soundtracks) is nothing to laugh at. As for Clutchy, since his teens, extensive travels through musical holy lands such as India, Japan, Nigeria, and Mexico have led to lifelong lasting teachings from the likes of Oba-lu-Funke, Moondog, and the Renzai Zen monks just to name a few. However, one listen to the LP seems to put it all in its place. Inspiration isn’t something strived for in uncomfortable amounts by either of these heavy musicians. Clutch of the Tiger displays how the somewhat strange pairing itself serves as enough ammunition to turn out an album to be remembered by jazz funk aficionados and the like, for some time to come. Fans of the quick boogie action which funk is known for will find themselves a bit challenged by this selection. Clutch of the Tiger is simply for the mellow. The infectious grooves take such a toll on the listener, however, such that it’s hardly noticeable that most of the album’s tempos rarely reach above 96 beats per minute. Both “Bill Blows It” and “So Easily… So Naturally” exploit the jazz grooves Shawn Lee so frequently flirts with. Meanwhile the mellow funk flow found on cuts like “When I Was Young” or “Bad Influence” manage to marry soul vibes with perfect hints of sixties psychedelic and mod styles. At times it becomes obvious with which tracks Clutchy takes a more hands-on approach than others. His love for all things Navrang and Far Eastern make “Indian Burn” a shoe-in for the Clutchy Hopkins signature sound library. Here, the duo seems to seamlessly melt tastes of the Indian city of Serampur with the South Bronx. Much of the native percussion work found on the intelligent “Till Next Time” piece is an easy giveaway to Clutchy’s influence as well. Of all listeners, fans of funk and soul soundtrack/ scores will seriously get a kick out of the collection that is Clutch of the Tiger. The duo serves up truckloads of soulful goodies, that could’ve easily been found during the same pivotal scenes of sixties and seventies action films many of us have come to love (Shawn Lee’s currently enjoying well deserved accolades for the compositions he’s contributed to the wildly popular Ocean’s Thirteen score). “Leon Me” and “Full Moon” instantaneously have you reaching for that extra large bucket, easy on the salt and butter please. It isn’t hard to tell where iconic hip-hop producer turned actor and film score composer RZA gets his modern inspiration. “Across The Pond” could’ve easily been sampled and placed on Wu Tang’s masterpiece Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers) [though, obviously it wasn’t]. Meanwhile, split into two compositional parts, “Dollar Short” (reviewer’s pick) is ready-made instant Hip Hop vintage. In short, file Clutch of the Tiger in your stack of wordless albums. No vocals are found whatsoever; strictly mood music here. Your tempos are down and midtempo- heavy (with the exception of a couple). More importantly, it’s amazing what blending two unlikely sources can yield as a collaborative effort. The result, Shawn Lee and Clutchy Hopkins’ Clutch of the Tiger, is a natural flowing stew of funk, soul, international, and nostalgia worthy of its place as a “keeper.”

Artist: carolina chocolate Drops Title: Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind Label: music maker By Josh Levin

The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind is an indispensable contribution to the old-time music revival that’s been increasing in popularity in recent years. Old-time music, an antecedent of modern-day bluegrass, is frequently associated with white musical traditions of Appalachia. However, an equal

contribution to the form comes from African-American styles developed in North and South Carolina. Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson (both from North Carolina’s Piedmont region), and Dom Flemons (from Arizona) are part of a new generation of young black musicians exploring this under-recognized part of American heritage music, and their is an album that’s both enjoyable and educational. The musical vocabulary here resembles that of similar bands such as Old Crow Medicine Show; throughout the album, rolling banjos and scratchy fiddles dominate. The best songs are the ones that deviate slightly from the formula: “Rickett’s Hornpipe” pops along with the help of a snare drum and a particularly creaky string part, “Little Sadie” projects urgency with its frantic male vocal and up-and-down fiddle riff, and “Tom Dula”, part of an extensive American tradition of murder ballads, contrasts its dark lyrical matter with a woozy slide guitar part and warm vocal harmonies. On the a cappella “Little Margaret”, Rhiannon Giddens’s wistful solo masterfully unravels yet another grisly love story that’s more creepy than romantic. The song, which sounds like it could just as easily have been sung in the English countryside in the late 1600s (when and where it did, in fact, first surface), further reveals the multi-cultural nature of our nation’s folk history. While the songs on Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind are strictly in the traditionalist vein, the Carolina Chocolate Drops spike the old-time aesthetic with a modern sensibility (go to YouTube to check out their unforgettable cover of the cheesy 2001 top 40 hit “Hit ‘Em Up Style”). For anyone interested in time-weathered American music from a refreshing and under-exposed angle, this album is not to be missed.

Artist: Silent Land Time machineTitle: And Hope Still…Label: indian Queen/Time-LagBy Lance Higdon

Silent Land Time Machine is an Austin band working in that woozy, gauzy area between lo-fi bedroom experimentalism, the cinematic end of 90s post-rock and the ongoing psych revival. The album blends the sounds of viola, violin, accordion, piano and the human voice, all delightfully processed through a variety of filters

and oscillators to create a relaxing jaunt through joy, despair, introspection and, yes, hope. Each song takes its time to arrive, arching (“I Shouldn’t Be In School”) and aching (“Memory Resister”) across a panoply of textures and dynamics. Released jointly by Time-Lag Record-ings and Indian Queen on beautifully-packaged, 180-gram vinyl, the palimpest-vague artwork of some washed-out rocky shore matches the sonics perfectly.

Artist: Frick the cat/Fuzzy wuz SheTitle: El Gato & Frick It! 7”Label: Abaton Book companyBy Ayn morgan

This 7” single features the energetic debut vocals of Frick the Cat with the musical accompaniment of guitarist Mark Dagley from Girls (part of the late 70’s Boston post-punk scene) and Hi Sheriffs of Blue (modeled after the 1950s electric blues bands from Chicago and Detroit). He currently performs with Pothole

Skinny and Marianne Nowottny and The All American Band. Dagley is an abstract artist who exhibits his geometric paintings, supergraphics and kinetic works internationally. A recent show in Brooklyn reintroduced works he made in William S. Burrough’s Bunker space on the Bowery in New York City and exhibited in 1978 at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in Soho. Dagley’s understanding of the abstract certainly influences his music. The first track, “El Gato,” brilliantly blends Frick’s low, tender and rapturous purr bursts with Dagley’s skillful and seductive Flamenco guitar. The recording is fine and simple, allowing stark focus on the artful and calming guitar work. “Frick It!” on Side B, incorporates the vocals of Frick’s feline housemates, Hissy and Bony. Together they create “Fuzzy Wuz She”, a fast-paced cat-yelping punk rock endeavor. The recording is gritty, lo-fi and energetic. While listening, you may forget that the vocals are feline. The cats are a wise choice, as they compliment the music instead of seeming like a novelty. My cats gathered attentively near the speakers and got hyper during “Frick It!”. After it stopped, they looked around and slowly walked away. This is not a comedy album. These aren’t cat samples on a keyboard but emotive com-ponents that fit naturally on both tracks. It’s a real accomplishment to blend these elements and produce something this fun yet in no way annoying, weak or embarrassing. Keep track of Frick, as he is currently working with playwright Lauri Bortz on an independent kung-fu book and film project.

By Lance HigdonWeasel Walter is a composer and multi-

instrumentalist renowned for writing and performing music on the margins. His career is marked by periodic vacillation between meticulously composed and spontaneously generated music, always marked by “speed, velocity and violence,” Walter’s defining aesthetic concepts.

Growing up in the relative tedium of Rockford, Illinois, Weasel Walter gravi-tated naturally to the punk rock scene. However, his dollar-bin discoveries of free jazz and no wave records (on which he is regarded as an expert—he has written liner notes for James Chance album reis-sues) set him on a sonic path that strained the naked aggression of punk through the complex sound-systems of the avant-garde. His avant-garde appetite led him down the highway to Chicago, studying at Columbia College with Hal Russell and immersing himself in improvised music.

It was here that he formed his longest-running ensemble, The Flying Luttenbach-ers, in 1991. The band has since become synonymous with Walter and a revolving door of players, ranging from initial mem-bers Russell and Chad Organ to Ken Van-dermark, Fred Longberg-Holm and (after Walter’s relocation to Oakland) Mick Barr. Other Chicago-era projects include Lake Of Dracula, To Live And Shave In L.A. 2, and Miss High Heel (with Jim O’Rourke), all of which mined similarly complex, cor-roding musical caverns . Albums from this period include The Flying Luttenbacher’s first singles “546 Seconds Of Noise” and

“1389 Seconds Of Noise”. It is also where he recorded Revenge, beginning to tell a sprawling and apocalyptic narrative of the demise of planet Earth and the interstel-lar spaces inhabited by various beings thereafter. Their stories are told on The Void and Systems Emerge From Complete Disorder.

Operating initially in improvisational idioms, Walter’s subsequent interest in highly detailed yet savage-sounding com-position led to The Flying Luttenbacher’s “brutal prog” phase. The intensity of the music is reflected in the volatility of the lineup. Subsequent years saw Walter play-ing with as many as four other musicians and as few as none, performing as a one-man whirlwind of tightly-scripted fury.

Having become frustrated by tepid support in Chicago (and the self-confessed sabotage of many relationships in his younger, testier days), Walter decamped to Oakland, where he felt there was a more receptive scene for his hard-fast-and-weird approach. Whatever his motivations, the Bay Area has been an inspiring home base for Walter. Along with new incarnations of The Flying Luttenbachers (which had moved back to a more improvisational approach), he joined the notorious hard-core band XBXRX on drums, garnering critical acclaim and bans from venues with equal intensity. Though The Flying Luttenbachers were officially retired in 2007, he keeps busy playing drums with XBXRX , Burmese, and Contradiction, in addition to improvising with a wide variety of players on both coasts.

Artist Profile: Weasel Walter

By Ayn MorganAt age 10, Huey Long got his first

job in Sealy, Texas selling produce. His grandmother had sold eggs and produce to both Stephen F. Austin and Santa Anna before the Texas War of Independence from Mexico. Huey used his earnings to buy a ukulele. When not working at the market, he practiced and learned ragtime chords by ear.

Making trips to Houston, Huey’s next job was shining shoes at the legendary Rice Hotel. He used the nickels he earned to buy sheet music and saw popular bands at the hotel which advanced his understand-ing of music. He later met bands when introducing them to audiences

In 1925, when the banjo player for the “Frank Davis’ Louisiana Jazz Band” missed a show, Frank asked Huey to play with them instead. Huey immediately went to the only music store in town and got a banjo on credit. He tuned it down to play by ear and later paid the banjo off with shoeshine nickels.

Several years later, he switched to the guitar and moved to Chicago, performing with Texas Guinan’s Cuban Orchestra. He practiced during the day; by night, he joined the active Chicago nightlife of the

1930s. Fletcher Henderson, staff arranger for Benny Goodman, was amazed by Huey’s chord melodies and original musi-cal arrangements. He sought out Huey to also arrange pieces for Benny Goodman in New York City.

Most big bands used black arrangers which were not publicly acknowledged. Benny Goodman was the first bandleader to put black musicians in the orchestra. As a result, Huey performed with Lionel Hampton, Fats Navarro and Gene Krupa. Through these associations, he played frequently at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. During this time he also performed with the Earl “Father” Hines Orchestra and played alongside such legends as Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

In 1944 Huey Long formed his first trio as the house band at New York’s Three Deuces Café on 52nd Street, the legend-ary street of jazz. One year later, while playing at the café he was approached to join The Ink Spots.

Huey is the last living original member of The Ink Spots, one of the first African American vocal groups to cross the racial barrier in radio and live performances. They helped define the musical genre that led to

rhythm & blues, rock & roll and doo-wop. When bebop grew in popularity, he had studio sets with Al Haig, Gene Ramey and Denzil Best. He later toured with the USO in the 1950’s, entertaining troops in Korea and Japan with “The Huey Long Trio”. He also performed for the USO in England with “The Snub Mosley Band” and while there, he recorded with “The Ravens”.

He later returned to New York and had his own music studio, taught students his chord method and was a music columnist for the New York Age Defender, which originated from the first African American newspaper.

When I talked with Huey Long, now 104 years old, it soon became clear that he was most excited about the recent election of Barack Obama.

Ayn Morgan: What do you think about Obama?

Huey Long: [smiles] I like him. I like him.

AM: Did you think you would ever see a black man elected president?

HL: No.AM: Do you think things will be different

now, since this has happened?

HL: Well, it seems there is a future. Change has come to America.

AM: Awesome.HL: That IS awesome.Ayn: Do you think this will help improve

civil right issues?Huey: I think so.AM: There is a possibility that Michelle

Obama’s mother may also move into the White House to help out with the Obama daughters. Do you think having an extended First Family will set a positive example?

HL: I think so, yes.AM: What do you do on “Huey Long

Day”? [Declared by Houston’s mayor, it’s April 25th every year, which is also Huey’s birthday.]

HL: We do something here [at the museum].

I’d like to add that Huey has a fantastic light blue suit that he wears each year on his birthday. He has a great time and enjoys visitors who come by to help him celebrate. For more information on Huey Long, visit www.inkspotmuseum.com or the Huey “Ink Spot” Long Living History Music Museum at 117 East 20th Street (713.677.9736).

An Interview with Huey Long

KTRU News Directors Carina Baskett and Helen Shaw attended the College Broadcasters, Inc. Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, in October.

Their four favorite letters

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INTeRvIewS aNd aRTIST PRoFIleS albUM RevIewS

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SPRING 2009

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To submit music for airplay consideration:Music Directors

C/o KTRU Ms-506P.O. Box 1892 • Houston, TX 77251

listen to or read about KTRU at www.ktru.org. on air music requests: 713.348.KTRU (5878)

You can also find email addresses for all of our directors at ktru.org.General correspondence can be directed to ktru@ktru.org

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